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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
I first read these books when I was 7 and they have impacted my life since then. They're probably the most important thing that has ever happened to me and honestly they are just so precious to me. The complex and convincing characters, intriguing storyline and fascinating, intricate world building made these books some of the most important things in the world to me. Tolkein's writing style is fascinating, reminiscient of ancient folk lore, and his knowledge of both ancient and modern languages, along with his writing fthe many extra books documenting the history of Middle Earth have made this so completely immersive that I just want to dive in and never come up again. That's why they are definitely 5 stars.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A few non-exhaustive, random and disordered thoughts on revisiting the book many years on from the first encounter...
1) Like The Hobbit, the songs just get in the way for me. I understand the literary and thematic reasons they are there ... I just don't like them and find them a little awkward.
2) It's a just story - the little and the overlooked are key players, the great and the famous are often unreliable and capricious.
3) Treebeard and Tom Bombadil are frustrating
4) There's quite a bit of space used up by characters updating each other with what we already know. Sometimes it's annoying; other times the nuanced changes in what's reported are important character development.
5) It's a masterpiece.
6) Getting coherent and enjoyable and accessible films out of it was verging on the miraculous.
7) It all goes to show the importance of having a coherent fictional world in the author's mind, even if it's not all evident in the text. It makes for a truly rich and satisfying read.
8) It's partially about the importance of stories - telling the stories of the ordinary as well as the extraodinary; indeed the great stories can be the most normal and everyday.
1) Like The Hobbit, the songs just get in the way for me. I understand the literary and thematic reasons they are there ... I just don't like them and find them a little awkward.
2) It's a just story - the little and the overlooked are key players, the great and the famous are often unreliable and capricious.
3) Treebeard and Tom Bombadil are frustrating
4) There's quite a bit of space used up by characters updating each other with what we already know. Sometimes it's annoying; other times the nuanced changes in what's reported are important character development.
5) It's a masterpiece.
6) Getting coherent and enjoyable and accessible films out of it was verging on the miraculous.
7) It all goes to show the importance of having a coherent fictional world in the author's mind, even if it's not all evident in the text. It makes for a truly rich and satisfying read.
8) It's partially about the importance of stories - telling the stories of the ordinary as well as the extraodinary; indeed the great stories can be the most normal and everyday.
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
As with the Hobbit I loved the trilogy The Lord of the Rings. I've read the whole trilogy 3 times! If you are considering reading Lord of the Rings, you'll need to commit yourself to the whole trilogy. Be prepared for a long journey that is so worth the time.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
The scene in the movie where Mary and Pippin jump on a troll inspired me to read
Yes, I am one of those long-suffering Tom Bombadil fans. And, yes, I was in a choral version of the story.
I first read this over 20 years ago in middle school. I did watch the movies, but I was never fanatical about them. So, while I didn't go into this with a blank slate, most memories of it were hazy at best. I recognize the series' status as a classic and I fully acknowledge the influence it has had on the genre. Nevertheless, I am going to review it as I would any other book: for the qualities that I experienced of it while reading.
With that said, I cannot read a book and completely ignore its place in the cultural milieu. And in that regard, I was massively disappointed in LotR. That basic disappointment stems from a major lack of balance, in my opinion: the book (herein referred to as "a book" because I read the single-volume version) is overladen and overwrought for the very simplistic story that it tells. The text is bloated with unnecessary detail that draws out each simple leg of the simple story well beyond what I view as tolerable. As a result, I found myself rushing and hoping to get through each part rather than immersing myself in the world and relishing each moment.
For me, possibly the most frustrating aspect of this overwrought simplicity was the fact that, for all the exposition about every minor detail, we're left with a nearly completely unexplained big baddy who has no apparent motive for wanting to see everything destroyed other than perhaps an intense (yet still unexplained) desire to rule over a plain of dust. At some point, I couldn't help but to stop caring about the threat posed by Sauron.
The only thing that keeps this at 3 stars for me, and not lower, is my recognition of the sheer amount of world-building on display. It is lightyears beyond anything other fantasy or sci-fi authors do. Maybe there's an irony in my lambasting the book for its overwrought details on the one hand and praising it for its world-building on the other. However, as I mentioned, it's about balance. The world-building would have benefited much more from either a much grander story or from several smaller stories illustrating different aspects of the world. Trying to use a simple story with Flatlander characters as a vehicle to explore that world just does the world (and the reader) a disservice.
With that said, I cannot read a book and completely ignore its place in the cultural milieu. And in that regard, I was massively disappointed in LotR. That basic disappointment stems from a major lack of balance, in my opinion: the book (herein referred to as "a book" because I read the single-volume version) is overladen and overwrought for the very simplistic story that it tells. The text is bloated with unnecessary detail that draws out each simple leg of the simple story well beyond what I view as tolerable. As a result, I found myself rushing and hoping to get through each part rather than immersing myself in the world and relishing each moment.
For me, possibly the most frustrating aspect of this overwrought simplicity was the fact that, for all the exposition about every minor detail, we're left with a nearly completely unexplained big baddy who has no apparent motive for wanting to see everything destroyed other than perhaps an intense (yet still unexplained) desire to rule over a plain of dust. At some point, I couldn't help but to stop caring about the threat posed by Sauron.
The only thing that keeps this at 3 stars for me, and not lower, is my recognition of the sheer amount of world-building on display. It is lightyears beyond anything other fantasy or sci-fi authors do. Maybe there's an irony in my lambasting the book for its overwrought details on the one hand and praising it for its world-building on the other. However, as I mentioned, it's about balance. The world-building would have benefited much more from either a much grander story or from several smaller stories illustrating different aspects of the world. Trying to use a simple story with Flatlander characters as a vehicle to explore that world just does the world (and the reader) a disservice.